Lauren Stickle – Volunteer Reflection

I have had the wonderful opportunity to do an internship at Wild Baby Rescue Center with Hope Davison. When I first started at the refuge I wanted to be a veterinarian. However, through working with all of the wildlife and working with Hope and the other interns I realized that’s not what I wanted to do at all. I want to be a wildlife biologist. There is just something completely and utterly amazing about feeding a baby squirrel or opossum. It let me see the personalities and behavior of animals that you do not get to interact with throughout your life.

While being at the refuge I got to feed the animals, study their behavior, come up with ideas on how to better enrich their time and keep them entertained while at the refuge, put ointment on some of their cuts, and learned about each species. A lot of which I didn’t know anything about.

I would never trade my experience at Wild Baby Rescue. It is truly one of my favorite places to be and it taught me so much that I would never have learned on my own. Hope is such an amazing and passionate person. It’s nice to see people who truly care about the animals and who love what they do. I learned more this summer about myself, my goals, and what I wanted out of my education at Centenary College and where ever I decide to go for my master’s degree then I did before going into college or over the past 2 years of attending. I can honestly say it was one of the best times of my life and I will continue to volunteer there because there is just nothing else like it. I highly recommend volunteering to anyone who loves animals and nature. It just doesn’t get any better then bottle feeding a baby fawn or squirrel. You will not be the same when you leave.